Cablegram 142 CANBERRA, 7 June 1947
IMMEDIATE SECRET
Your 157 [1] and our 135. [2]
Massey now advises that Dr. Utoyo, Indonesian Secretary General, has requested him to arrange facilities for visit to Australia of Saroso, Usman and Wibowo. Your 157 indicated that Dutch Far Eastern Office of Foreign Affairs raised no objection to the unofficial visit of this Mission to Australia. Subsequently we learnt from Netherlands Legation here that Dutch objected to visit.
2. We feel that Dutch concurrence in this projected visit is necessary but have difficulty in understanding grounds of Dutch change of front towards Mission. Please endeavour to obtain Dutch consent to unofficial visit to Australia of these three Indonesian Officers. We assume that the enquiry at Singapore is preliminary only and that Indonesian authorities will await Dutch concurrence before going ahead with arrangements. [3]
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1 Document 69.
2 See Document 69, note 4.
3 Ballard replied on 8 June that the Dutch authorities had reversed their attitude and approved Usman’s visit and that they were indeed assisting him to obtain passage on a Dutch aircraft scheduled to arrive in Brisbane on 10 June. No arrangements were made for Saroso or Wibowo to follow.
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[AA:A1838/283, 401/3/10/7, i]